Kansas City's First All-Girls Charter School Will Open Next Year In Historic Northeast

The first Kansas City charter school for girls only has worked out a deal with Hogan Preparatory Academy to open next year in its elementary building at 17th and Van Brunt.

Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy will open next fall in the old Kensington School, currently Hogan Preparatory Academy Elementary, which is relocating south of Brush Creek.

Credit Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy

Meanwhile Hogan Preparatory Academy Elementary will move to 2803 E. 51st Street, which is closer to the middle and high school.

“When I walked in, I was like, ‘This is home,’” said Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy Principal Tara Haskins, who will open the school in fall 2019 with 100 fifth graders. “What I loved about this building is its access to main roads. We’re serving a diverse population of families, and they’ll have access from most parts of the city.”

KCGPA will ultimately serve students in fifth through 12th grades, adding a class of 100 girls each year until the school is full. Young women from high poverty zip codes in Northeast Kansas City will be given priority admission.

The building, 5000 E. 17th St., is the former Kensington School. More recently, it was Imagine Renaissance Academy of Environmental Science and Math, a charter school that closed in 2012. The building sat empty until Hogan Preparatory Academy renovated it and reopened it in 2017.

KCGPA Executive Director Tom Krebs said the building will need “minimal” work because it is currently being used as a school.

“We could walk in there tomorrow and start teaching classes,” Krebs said. “But we’re also doing a really careful long-term facilities plan right now, and that’ll take several months to work out with our architect.”

The building Hogan Preparatory Academy will move elementary school students to is owned by the Upper Room, a nonprofit that provides after operates a child development center and after school program.

KCGPA, Hogan Preparatory Academy and the Upper Room issued a joint statement describing the agreement as a “win-win-win” for their respective organizations.

Elle Moxley covers education for KCUR. You can reach her on Twitter @ellemoxley.

The Missouri Charter Public School Commission voted to accept Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy’s application Wednesday morning after an evening of public testimony overwhelmingly in support of the school.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James, who is on the charter school’s board of directors, told the commission most of his staffers are women.